Now, ASUS has announced its follow-up, the Transformer Prime, which is based around NVIDIA fresh new Tegra 3 processor (aka Kal-El). The Tegra 3 features four processing cores, a fifth “companion core” for low-power functions, and 1GB of RAM.

Tegra 3 is based on an ARM Cortex A9 design and doubles the Tegra 2's processing power. A 12-core GeForce GPU handles graphics duties and offers up to a 3x improvement in performance. To say that the Transformer Prime will be a multimedia/gaming powerhouse would be an understatement.

Tegra 3 delivers all of this while offering up to a 61 percent savings in power consumption.

Moving to the actual tablet's design of the tablet, the Transformer Prime now weighs just 1.29 pounds and is just 0.33 inches thick. The 10" screen retains its 1280x800 resolution, but now Super IPS+ to go along with Gorilla Glass. Brightness is pegged at 600 nits and it has a 178-degree viewing angle.

Although holding up a 1.29-pound, 10" tablet up to take pictures is going to make you look like a goober, ASUS hasn't skimped when it comes to optics. The Transformer Prime features an 8MP rear camera with an f/2.4 lens and back-illuminated sensor. As is typical of today's high-end smartphones and tablets, it can capture video in 1080p. A 1.2mp camera is included on the tablet's face for video conferencing.

When it comes to connectivity, the usual microSD slot and micro HDMI port are included. In addition, the Transformer Prime continues to offer its proprietary interface to attach the keyboard dock that turns the tablet into a fully functional laptop. The keyboard dock adds a USB 2.0 port and a full-size Secure Digital slot.

Battery life is listed at an impressive 12 hours for the Transformer -- that figure jumps to 18 hours when using the keyboard dock.

The Transformer Prime will be made available for $499 (32GB) and $599 (64GB). The keyboard dock will be priced at $149. The Transformer Prime will ship with Android 3.2 “Honeycomb”, but will be updated to Ice Cream Sandwich OTA in early December.

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If you do not already have a laptop, and you think you'll get more out of one, by all means go get one.

A laptop itself is a series of compromises, all of which make sense. It's harder to use a laptop while standing around, for instance. Screens tend to be of poorer quality, especially for the budget laptops (lower color gamut, weird shifts when viewed at an angle). Battery life's probably not as good (though 3-4 hours, claimed, in some models is still much better than just a couple years ago). Not that these compromises are deal-breakers, at least not for me. But like I said, I already have a laptop.

But I want a super-portable tablet that weighs significantly less than five pounds, that I can easily use standing up, with a great screen with huge viewing angles with minimal distortion, with battery life up the ass.

You probably do, too, and I get it: Five hundred's not worth it to you. So it's just a matter of price, so I get it. Me, I'm just looking at it from the POV of the existing ecosystem, and for the same price as most of the big-name vendors, the Prime is simply much more power and utility per dollar. It's true I'm probably going to waste a lot of time playing Angry Durrds or whatever the kids are playing these days, but yeah, that's what I want. :)